The conventional method of processing an online transaction involves a consumer initiating an online transaction request by presenting a hardware token (e.g. credit or debit card) at a merchant's point-of-sale (POS) terminal, and the POS providing the merchant's acquirer with particulars of the transaction (e.g. payment amount, and account number associated with the hardware token). The issuer of the hardware token receives the transaction particulars from the merchant's acquirer and approves or rejects the transaction request after considering several factors, including whether the account has sufficient credit/funds to complete the transaction.
To increase revenue, a merchant might issue coupons or flyers advertising discounts or loyalty points that are available on the purchase of the merchant's wares/services. Typically, the advertisements are delivered on large scale, without regards to the consumer preferences or purchasing history.
Fidelisoft (WO 20011/006258) describes a system and method for processing an online transaction in which a consumer presents a credit or debit card at a POS, and a central server provides the consumer with a plurality of transaction scenarios (e.g. discounts, loyalty points) at the POS based on the consumer's predefined preference profile. The POS provides the acquirer with the particulars of the consumer's selected transaction, for subsequent processing by the issuer. Although this solution allows advertisements to be presented to consumers based on each consumer's preferences, the solution requires the POS to issue both an initial transaction request and a subsequent selected transaction request to the acquirer. Therefore, the proposed solution cannot be implemented with existing POS devices.